Dead Sky
by Deezaster82
Summary: Takes place in TFTM. Galvatron got rid of Starscream and no one was left to mourn him. Then who put his remains in the Decepticon Crypt? Short ficlet, not slash.


Empty sky

This was the day I've been waiting for all my life.

Millions of years, I fought, hoping, longing for this time to come. Finally, today really is: I, Starscream, am the leader of all the Decepticons! Today, in the hall of heroes, the trumpets of glory are playing for me, and for me alone!

Megatron is gone, He had thrown himself in a last one-to-one battle against Optimus Prime and had eventually defeated and killed the Autobot's leader. I must admit, he had fought like a true Decepticon leader, deceiving his opponent to turn the fight to his advantage. Using another foolish Autobot as a shield, Megatron had furiously blasted Optimus Prime until the Autobot leader fell down to the ground.

Unfortunately for Megatron, Optimus Prime, not willing to give up so easily, had thrown a last powerful punch into Megatron's side, pushing him over the edge of their battle platform. The landing has been too hard to handle, even for our mighty leader, and when we found him, he was drowning in his own life fluids in a state far beyond repair.

I hope he died quickly after I threw him out of Astrotran and into the void of space.

Believe me or not, I had respect for him. His power has always scared me to the core. I've never been a threat to him, for he had always kept me in a stong hold. He was the only one who knew it, but I truly admired his power and, also, he had realised how valuable I was, making me his second-in-command.

His death had been the opportunity to get what I've always deserved, the leadership, the ultimate power! As second in the chain of command, I was the one to succeed him and now I have it all for me! So please, somebody, tell me why, as the crown of my supremacy is settled on my head, do I feel so bitter?

Maybe because the price of my victory has been too high to pay.

For Megatron wasn't the only one to be thrown into oblivion. It was for the survival of the fittest, for us to reach Cybertron, that Astrotrain has requested that we jettisoned some weight. A quick vote and the decision was taken to get rid of the wounded. Skywarp and Thundercracker were amongst those who shared Megatron's fate.

I wasn't the one who kicked them out of the shuttle, but the fact I haven't done anything to prevent the others to do it makes me as guilty as if I had done it myself. I killed my own wingmates, the only friends I ever had and the only ones who looked up to me. I would never be able to forget the painful look in their optics as they were floathing away to a certain death and even if none of them had said anything, I could almost have sensed the rage and the incredulity as their voices screamed in my head "Why have you betrayed us?"

And "us" meant the three of us.

My thoughts were cut off when an strange looking squadron of alien jets broke into the hall of heroes to land almost at the feet of the dais I was standing on.

"Who disturbs my coronation?" I shouted angrily.

An oddly familiar robot popped out of the leading jet and jumped in front of me, a vicious grin plastered on his pale face. "Coronation, Starscream?" he sneered, "This is bad comedy!"

What was bad comedy for sure was that this mech sounded so much like Megatron, behaved so much like my dead leader used to behave and looked slightly like him. But it couldn't be him, it wasn't his body, and I didn't knew any of his fellow... Or vaguely so... they left me with a strange impression...

"Megatron?" I asked, my voice getting higher due to the surprise, "Is that you?"

The whomever transformed into a very big canon and answered me in a rather spectacular way, even if the show wasn't put for me. "This is a hint!"

There was a sharp bright light that wrapped me in its unbearable warmth and I turned my head on the side in a desperate attempt to escape the radiance. But that was useless. I couldn't move at all, the light was holding me tight. I was paralysed in a dramatic posture, like those lifeless statues in the hall.

There was a horrible pain that took over all my sensors. My mouth, wide open, didn't allow me to scream, because my vocaliser was already fried. With horror, I realised what was happening.

_Today my life has reached its peak, today has witnessed my supremacy and tonight would see my fall._

Then I didn't feel anything anymore, my sensors had burned out, along with all my inner circuitry and my whole frame collapsed like a sand castle. All that was left of me was a pile of ashes on the floor and a crown which was crushed under my killer's foot.

I remember, a few years ago, as I had almost succeeded another attempt to take over Megatron's leadership, he had smiled at me... and told me: "_Be aware, Starscream, today you may dispose of me, but there will always be someone else waiting to dispose of you!_"

"_Let them try!_" had been my reply.

I looked at Galvatron and wondered...

No, this individual was not Megatron, not anymore. Megatron would never have killed me, at least not like this, not without a long and painful torture. This frame may have been Megatron's at some point but its very essence has faded away. Megatron is dead and somebody is using his upgraded body for some dark purpose that would certainly lead the Decepticon army to its doom.

That was hard to swallow, but there was really not much I could have done about it. Here and now, I am not much more than a wandering spirit and my naked spark is all I have left. And to see what I saw, I rather be in the darkness of oblivion.

No one of my ex-fellow Decepticons seemed to care about my fate, no one mourned me for sure. I was their leader for about 30 seconds. Not a big time to prove myself and none of them had ever been very fond of me. The only ones that would have cared a little were already dead... And I am not even allowed to rejoin them in the well of allspark.

All the Decepticons left shortly after, following their new leader, Galvatron -that's his name-, and I have no idea where they were going to and I didn't know what this Galvatron wanted them for. I just had a bad feeling that whatever it would be, they would regret it! But his show of power had made them follow him blindly and they would have followed him all the way to hell if he had commanded them to.

Two of his warriors did stay behind, those who had been glaring at the dais with concern after I was destroyed. They looked like nothing I've ever seen before but, in a way, I already knew who they were or, rather, who they used to be.

They had been waiting for their leader to be out of sight to climb the stairs of the dais and assemble my remains in my lower legs and thrusters, which had been miraculously spared.

The one with what looked like a human beard gazed at the one with bunny ears on his helmet.

"What are we going to do with it, Cyclonus?" he said and his deep voice was somehow similar to Thundercracker's, while not sounding like him at all.

"We must put him in the Decepticon crypt, Scourge."

This one sounded so not like Skywarp.

But their presence felt oddly like their had felt.

The so-called Scourge shock his head. "Isn't that too much honour for him?"

"That's not him I want to enshrine. that's what Skywarp and Thundercracker believed into." said Cyclonus, his optics flaring dark red with... was it hate? Sadness? Both?

If I'd been able to do it, I would have cried... Oh how much I wished I could've cried.

But Scourge shook his head again. "Thundercracker didn't know what to believe in anymore, Cyclonus. Now it's too late anyway."

Cyclonus sighed and looked at the sky. "It's not too late, Scourge. Thundercracker and Skywarp were given a second chance."

"No, Thundercracker is dead. I'm not him. I'm Scourge and I have nothing to do with him."

" I'm not Skywarp either. But at least, I'm alive. We can't say the same for Starscream."

Silence followed them on their flight to the crypt. I followed in the middle of the duo, like I did many time before with Skywarp and Thundercracker. I knew it was the last time we were flying together.

Scourge turned his head in my direction and for a brief moment, he disappeared and there was Thundecracker, smiling at me. Cyclonus came at his side, but it was Skywarp that I saw, looking at me with his good old smirk.

"I am sorry!" I managed to say, but of course, there was no spoken words. "I am so sorry!"

What else could I have said that they didn't already know. I don't know if I imagined it or not, but they were looking surprised, as if they didn't understand why I apologised. They started to laugh, looped around me happily and I entered the dance of joy-flying.

For a time oh-so short, we were just flying, playing together. It was like nothing had happened and we were alive again. I was happy again. Nothing was said, words were not necessary. Then, with a last barrel roll around me, Skywarp and Thundercracker flew away. This was not goodbye, for I knew we would never see each other again. They were dead and I was condemned to live forever.

They vanished like a dream, leaving me alone in our mourning sky. Shortly after that, Cyclonus and Scourge arrived at the crypt and put my remains on some stone-made marker. They stayed silent for a while.

Eventually, Cyclonus spoke. Cyclonus...not Skywarp. "Rest in peace, Starscream, ex-leader of the Decepticons! Hail Cybertron!"

"May you have a nice flight in the skies of eternity!" said Scourge, not Thundercracker. And without a second thought, they left me alone with the silence.

Scourge and Cyclonus had let my friends' sparks go. They are free now and forever, unlike me. I was just a little bit sad at the thought that I would never see them again, but I was glad to know that, for them, the endless war was over. They were now flying in far away peaceful skies that I will never see.

We would fly together never again. For the endlessness of eternity, I was condemned to exist and feel nothing, not even numbness. And though I can still fly in my beloved sky, the etheral mental projection of my wings won't disturb the air around me and never again will I feel the sweet caress of the wind on my frame. The sky belonged to me and Skywarp and Thundercracker.

Who owned the sky now that we are all gone? To me it seemed like the sky was dead.

I couldn't even cry.


End file.
